“Give Gorrn back the scoop,” said the Forkbeard, “and then carry water to my men.”

“Yes,” she said.

The Forkbeard looked at her.

“Yes,” she said “-myJarl.” To the bond-maid the meanest of the free men of the North is her jarl. We heard Aelgifu laugh from the mast.The bond-haired girl rose to her feet and surrendered the scoop to Gorm, who put it away, and then closed the deck planking. She then went to one of the large, wooden, covered water buckets, roped to the deck, and in it submerged a water-skin. I heard the bubbling as the skin filled.

The men of Torvaldsland had not sought the whales. They had meat enough. They had barely taken notice of them. It was now late in the afternoon.

I noted the blondish girl, the water bag now, wet and heavy, over her shoulder, going to the men of the Forkbeard, to offer them drink.

She was quite beautiful.

The men who had fished with the net had now cleaned the catch of parsit fish, and chopped the cleaned, boned, silverish bodies into pieces, a quarter inch in width. Another of the bond-maids was then freed to mix the bond-maid gruel, mixing fresh water with Sa-Tarna meal, and then stirring in the raw fish.

“Let us have another game,” said the Forkbeard.

I set up the pieces.

He went to Ael~ifu, who sat before the mast, her wr;sts fettered before her, her neck chained to the mast. He lifted her black, velvet dress up a little, revealing her ankle. She shrank back against the mast.

“Tomorrow night,” he said, “I will have your ransom money.”

“Yes,” she said.

With his two large hands, he held her right ankle. She could not draw it away.

“I am free,’ she whispered.

Holding her ankle with his left hand, he, with the fingers of his right hand, caressed, gently, her instep. She shuddered.

“I am free,” she said. “Free!”

“Would you not, my large breasted beauty,” said he, “like to spend the night with me in my bag of the skin of the sea sleen?”

“No!” she cried. “No!’Then she said, “If I am violated he will not pay the ransom! Too he will bring with him awoman, that determination on this matter be made! Surely you wish my ransom!”

“Yes,” said the Forkbeard, putting down her ankle, “I do indeed want your ransom, and I shall have it.”

“Then, Beast,” said she, “do not touch me!”

“I am not touching you,” said he, and got to his feet.

She turned away, and would not look at him. But she said to him, “Give me a covering for the night, that I may not be wet and cold.”

“Go lie with the bond-maids,” said he.

“Never!” she said.

“Then stay where you are,” said the Forkbeard.

She looked up at him, her hair bedraggled, her eyes flashing. “Very well,” said she, “I shall endure the night cheerfully. It will be my last in your bondage!”

The girl who had prepared the bond-maid gruel, had now been refettered and placed again in the coffle. The slender blond girl, who had been giving the men water from the skin bag, was now given the work of filling small bowls from the large wooden bowl, for the bond-maids. She used a bronze ladle, the handle of which was curved like the neck and head of a lovely bird. About the handle was a closed bronze ring, loose. It formed a collar for the bird’s neck. The bond-maids did not much care for their gruel, unsweetened, mudlike Sa-Tarna meal, with raw fish. They fed, however. One girl who did not care to feed was struck twice across her back by a knotted rope in the hand of Gorm. Quickly then, and well, she fed. The girls, including the slender blondish girl, emptied rheir bowls, even to licking them, and rubbing them with their saliva-dampened fingers, that no grain be left, lest Gorm, their keeper in the ship, should not be pleased. They looked to one another infear, and put down their bowls, as they finished, fed bondwenches.

“Come here, Wench,” called the Forkbeard.

The slender blondish girl quickly approached him, and knelt before him on the deck.

“Feed her,” said the Forkbeard, gesturing over his shoulder.

The girl rose, and went to fill one of the small bowls for Aelgifu. Soon, she brought it to her.

As she approached Aelgifu, Aelgifu called out to her, “You walk well, Thyri. You walk as a bond-maid.”

The slender, blondish girl, called Thyri, though now, actually, she had no name, not having been given one by the Forkbeard, did not respond to Aelgifu’s taunt.

“Kneel,” said Aelgifu.

The girl knelt.

“What have you there?” asked Aelgifu.

“Gruel,” said the girl.

“Taste it,” said Aelgifu.

Obediently, angrily, the girl did so.

“It is bond-maid gruel, is it not?” asked Aelgifu.

“Yes,” said the girl.

“Why then,” asked Aelgifu, “have you brought it to me?”

The girl put her head down.

“I am free,” said Aelgifu. “Take it away. It is for such as you.”

The girl did not respond.

“When my ransom is paid, and I return,” said Aelgifu, “there will no longer be dispute as to who is the most beautiful in Kassau.”

“No,” said the girl.

“But I was always the most beautiful,” said Aelgifu.

The blond girl’s eyes flashed.

“Take this gruel away,” said Aelgifu. “It is for bondmaids such as you.”

The blond girl rose to her feet and left Aelgifu. The Forkbeard looked up from his game. He reached out and took the bowl from the blond girl. He said to Gorm, “Return her to the coffle.” He took the blond girl back to the coffle. He made her kneel and again snapped on her wrists the iron, single-linked fetters of the north, and then he tied her by the neck at the end of the coffle.

The Forkbeard was using the Jarl’s Ax’s gambit, a powerful opening.I studied the board with care.

Ivar Forkbeard approached Aelgifu with the small bowl of gruel. He crouched down beside her.

“When your father sees you tomorrow night,” said he, “you must not be weak, but rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed. What otherwise would he think of the hospitality I extend to my prisoners?”

“I will not eat the gruel of bond-maids,” said Aelgifu.

“You will eat it,” said the Forkbeard, “or you will be stripped and put to the oar.”

She looked at him with horror.

“That will not violate you, my pretty,” said the Forkbeard.

In this punishment, the girl, clothed or unclothed, is bound tightly on an oar, hands behind her, her head down, toward the blade. When the oar lifts from the water she gasps for breath, only in another moment to be submerged again. A recalcitrant girl may be kept on the oar for hours. There is also, however, some danger in this, for sea sleen and the white sharks of the north occasionally attempt to tear such a girl from the oar. When food is low it is not unknown for the men of Torvaldsland to use a bond-maid, if one is available on the ship, for bait in such a manner. The least pleasing girl is always used. This practice, of course, encourages bondmaids to vie vigorously to please their masters. An Ahn on the oar is usually more than sufficient to make the coldest and proudest of females an obedient, eager-to-please bondmaid. It is regarded as second only to the five-lash Gorean slave whip, used also in the south, and what among the men of Torvaldsland is called the whip of the furs, in which the master, with his body, incontrovertibly teaches the girl her slavery.

“Open your mouth, my large-breasted beauty,” said the Forkbeard.

Eyes wide, she did so. He thrust the contents of the small bowl into her mouth. Choking, the proud Aelgifu swallowed the thick gruel, that of dampened Sa-Tarna meal and raw fish, the gruel of bond-maids.

“Tomorrow night I shall have your ransom,” he said.

“Tomorrow night,?’ she cried, “I shall be free of you!”

He threw the cup back to the stern of the ship, and returned to sit down with me.

“I think I may have devised a plan,” I said, “to meet the JarI’s Ax’s gambit.”